<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Two Useless Lesbian Nerds (or, alternatively, Geometry Sucks) by QueenTimeyWimey</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27134833">Two Useless Lesbian Nerds (or, alternatively, Geometry Sucks)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenTimeyWimey/pseuds/QueenTimeyWimey'>QueenTimeyWimey</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, F/F, Light Angst, Useless Lesbians, and now im running with it, i had an idea, nerds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:40:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27134833</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenTimeyWimey/pseuds/QueenTimeyWimey</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Adora is the math team captain. Adora also cannot write proofs.</p><p>In which Catra is Adora's tutor and they have a messy history.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adora/Catra (She-Ra)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Oh Shoot</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey sup :) I'm a math nerd, and this idea was just too good to pass up. Basically, Adora is really good at getting the answer, but sucks at proving stuff, and Catra is the master of the proof.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adora walked into the library and chose a table with two chairs by the window. Catra still liked the sun, right? The sun streamed in and made the varnish on the old wooden table and chairs shine. With a sigh, she placed her backpack beside her dark oak chair and after a bit of struggle she was able to get the giant geometry textbook onto the table. Catra wasn’t here yet, so Adora decided that she would stare at the book with all of the hate that she was feeling towards geometry right then.</p><p>A <em>math</em> team captain! A <em>math</em> team captain has to get tutoring for <em>math</em>. It’s pathetic! Stupid proofs and even stupider triangles. Adora was just fine only dealing in numbers, staying in her neat little world of algebra, arithmetic, and number theory. She’d brush up on a little bit of geometry for her AMC’s but besides that she stayed far, far away. And even in these brush ups, she had never had to prove anything. So now that she was taking it as a class, and the whole class was proofs, she was not doing well. After she got a D on her first test, her mother had put her right into tutoring, with no regard for her reputation.</p><p>And then there was the matter of her tutor. Catra. Catra and her had history, to say the least.</p><p>--------+--------</p><p>Catra ran through the halls, weaving in and out of crowds of students. Scorpia was running behind her, trying to keep up, but miserably failing without Catra’s nimbleness and agility.</p><p>“Catra, wait up!”, she called.</p><p><br/>“I’m late! And I need this money; my mom isn’t gonna buy me that new handbag I want. She’s all like, ‘No, you don’t need a Longchamp, get a lame utilitarian satchel in Boringness Gray.’” Catra responded, turning around to face Scorpia and running backwards, before turning around again and dashing off towards the library.</p><p><br/>She knew she had a new assignment, but she hadn’t checked who. Didn’t really matter anyways, she could check when she got to the library.<br/>Catra finally burst in the doors and caught her breath. In one fluid movement, she whipped her phone out and checked the email. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw who she’d be tutoring. <em>Adora Grayskull</em>.</p><p><br/>Catra looked up from her phone and scanned the room. In a table with two chairs by the window, Adora sat looking at her geometry textbook like she was going to murder it. And, go figure, she still wore that stupid red blazer and had that dumb little poof in her hair.</p><p>-------+-------</p><p>“Hey Adora,” Adora looked up, startled. “How’s it hanging?” She was met with an unmistakable smirk.</p><p></p><div class="userstuff module">
  <p>Catra had cleaned up, that much was obvious to Adora. Gone was the messy hair, loose-fitting t-shirt, ripped jeans, and bright Converse sneakers. Now she wore a tight top with a cutout and only one sleeve, paired with a matching skirt and knee-high boots. The whole outfit was probably designer. Her hair was much tamer, probably due to an undercut and some mousse. And despite all that had changed, Catra still wore that headband she had bought her on a shopping trip at the mall. It was red with cat ears, and somehow didn’t look out of place with her new sleek look. And then of course, there’s the other thing that hadn’t changed, her smirk. It was a very much still Catra, with her unusually sharp canines and it’s somehow teasing, yet caring, nature.</p>
  <p>“I see that leaving Horde Math Club for the math team went great for you.” Catra snarked. Horde Math Club. Dr. Weaver. Dr. Hordak. It’d been a long time since she’d thought about them. Horde Math Club was a cutthroat environment; it was thirty teens trying to get their name on a paper so that they might get into MIT or Harvard. The math club met on Thursdays at the as the same time as the math team, and the math team seemed like a much more supportive environment, so she left. She tried to get Catra to join the math team too, but she refused on the grounds that “real mathematicians” wrote proofs instead of solving problems fast. Turns out she was right. Not that she was about to tell Catra that.</p>
  <p>“Let’s just get this over with,” Adora sighed. She tightened her ponytail and took out her favorite pencil, the one that looked like a sword.</p>
  <p>“You still have that? You’re such a dork,” Catra said with a hint of amusement in her voice. Adora groaned and opened up the geometry textbook.</p>
  <p>“Nope, we’re not doing that.” Catra said, a knowing smirk blossoming on her face.</p>
  <p>“What do you mean we’re not doing that!? I’m here to get tutored for geometry.”</p>
  <p>“Yeah, but your problem in geometry is the probably in the proofs, so you need to understand how they work. And you like algebra, so guess what?”</p>
  <p>“What,” Adora deadpanned.</p>
  <p>“We’re doing Boolean algebra!” Catra said with overly enthusiastic jazz hands. Well, that’s another thing that hasn’t changed. She is still sarcastic as ever.</p>
  <p>“This is going to be awful.”</p>
  <p>“You chose this,” Catra said with a shrug. “Don’t blame me.”</p>
  <p>--------+--------</p>
  <p>“De Morgan’s Laws also say that P is false and Q is false is equivalent to it is false that P or Q is true.” Catra explained. Just then, the alarm on her phone rang. “Well, I guess that’s it for this week. I’ll jot down a few problems for you to solve for next week.”</p>
  <p>“And all of this is going to help me because?”</p>
  <p>Catra sighed. “If I explained every single proof to you or helped you with your homework, it’d be putting a band-aid on the problem, not solving it. Once you get the hang of Boolean algebra, proofs are going to start making a lot more sense.”</p>
  <p>Adora still looked unconvinced but gave a reluctant “okay” .</p>
  <p>“‘Kay then, see you next week.” Catra said, picking up her backpack and putting it on one shoulder and then walking out of the library.</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Adora, Adora, Adora</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In which I do a lot of world-building and explain a lot.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you read the first chapter before 11/30/20, you'll note that I've moved Catra's emotional breakdown to this chapter. This was to better organize the chapters and even out their lengths. </p><p>Also, sorry for not having updated in such a long time! This was pretty much sitting in my drafts since the day after I posted the original story, but I wanted to write more. I ultimately decided that there wasn't much more to write, and moved the last section of the first chapter here instead :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adora watched Catra leave. She walked with all the confidence in the world and a slightly angry swagger in her step, like she might just set the world on fire if provoked. Catra wasn’t like that at all in middle school. Her neck used to be slightly hunched and yet her back was too straight, as if she was trying to look confident, to impress, and yet not believing it at all herself. She must have gotten quite the confidence boost these last two years.</p><p>With a small sigh, Adora tucked her notes into her purple folder and shoved it in her backpack. After tucking her pencil into her ponytail and checking she was not leaving anything behind, she was ready to go.</p><p>Adora barely remembered meeting Catra; they had been so young, so innocent. Adora must have been around four. She had still been in Dr. Weaver’s care back then. Adora had been left at a fire station when she was barely a month old and was put into Dr. Weaver’s care through the foster care system.</p><p>Catra was a completely different case. Adora had been a completely average child who happened to land in Dr. Weaver’s care, but Catra had been left on Dr. Weaver’s doorstep with a note claiming she was a mathematical prodigy. And Catra, without a doubt, had a gift. Adora remembered learning to add and subtract while Catra was already ripping her way through the times tables with glee. And by the time Adora had finally gotten to times tables, Catra had left her in the dust, already digging into algebra.</p><p>And yet somehow, Adora had been Dr. Weaver’s favorite. It made no sense by all accounts; later on, Dr. Weaver always seemed to favor the brightest.  Adora seemed to be the only exception. Adora remembered when, back in fourth grade, Dr. Weaver had yelled at Catra for not understanding how to factor a cubic equation yet, and then patiently coached Adora through her order of operations worksheets.</p><p>In fifth grade, however, things changed. Adora caught the eye of a prominent executive at First Ones Tech, Light Hope Grayskull, at a science fair. It turns out that Light Hope had been a close friend of Adora’s family, and she decided to adopt her. Adora remembered how bitter Catra had been. Adora had researched hydrolysis and reproduced it. Quite impressive, but nowhere near Catra’s project. Catra had calculated the stress on different parts of a structure under varying amounts of weight using linear algebra, and then proven it through experimentation. And yet it had been Adora who caught Light Hope’s eye. After Catra had sneered for weeks on end about how Adora always won because she had luck on her side. The worst part was that Catra wasn’t wrong.</p><p>After Adora had left Dr. Weaver’s care, Dr. Weaver decided to adopt Catra. Catra speculated that Dr. Weaver was making sure Catra could not get adopted out of her care like Adora had been. She could not risk another child with a bright future not having their success attributed to her. Catra had told her that Dr. Weaver had started pushing her harder. Catra was doing calculus by the start of sixth grade.</p><p>Sixth grade was when they had both started at Horde Math Club, where Dr. Weaver mentored. Catra had begged Adora to join so that she wouldn’t be alone. Light Hope was reluctant to let Adora join, but after Adora’s persistent pleas, she obliged. Horde Math Club was intense, to say the least. Everyone there was no bark and all bite, sharp smiles and big egos hidden behind quiet personalities. They were all clamoring to get their name on a paper, to prove themselves and rise through the ranks of “The Horde” as they called it.</p><p>The Horde had a peculiar organization, with military titles, reinforcing the fact that this was an army and not a cute math club. People not yet in high school were called “cadets”. Leaders of cadet squads were called “officer cadets”. Once one graduated to high school, squads were spilt into “force” and “non-force”, with force squads working on tougher, more important projects. “Captains” were the leaders of squads. Adora had quite the leadership skills, so she easily nabbed the rank of officer cadet. She had just been promoted to force captain when she left for the Brightmoon Math Team, leaving Catra with the title she always wanted. It must have made Catra happy to have her out of the way. Right?</p><p>--------+--------</p><p>Once she got home, Catra’s cocky façade came crashing down. Why? Why of all people did she have to tutor <em>Adora</em>? Adora who left her for some sparkly new friends. Adora who left her when they were just about to finish their project. Adora, Adora, Adora.</p><p>Why did she have to go and mess it all up? Adora had everything back at the Horde. She was Dr. Weaver’s favorite, the golden child. Catra remembered how her chest would fill up with a horrible, green, icky feeling that burned every time Adora got most of the credit as the leader of their group, even though Catra had been the one who made the breakthroughs. Adora didn’t even realize what was going on. And then high school came, she made new friends, and she left. She left Catra with a paper half-finished that would still have her name on it first because her last name was Grayskull, and Catra’s was Weaver, and that’s just the way it worked in the world of mathematics. WHY!? Catra curled up on her bed and broke into sobs. Adora, Adora, Adora.</p><p>And yet the part that hurt the most wasn’t the half-finished paper. It was the half-finished relationship. They had been <em>this</em> close. And then high school came like a tsunami and washed it all away. Catra wished she could say that it was fiery, the way that they stopped talking to each other. Afterall, Catra thrived in fire, she knew how it worked, how the flames danced and how the flames burnt. But it was not. It was a most definitely tsunami. It came out of nowhere and was violent in the calmest way. And when it was over, what was left wasn’t nothing but ashes, but everything broken into a thousand pieces so that it was impossible to look away. Adora, Adora, Adora.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading!</p><p>If you have any suggestions or just really like the story, please comment and let me know. I'd love to hear your feedback! Also, if anyone would like to collaborate with me on this, I'd be more than happy to as I'm not very good at plot</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. "It was never a game to me."</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>In which we meet the infamous math team and math club.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a sunny Thursday afternoon, and the math team was, per usual, packed into the Warren Room. The room had one big table in the middle, around which the ten people on the main team sat. Around the big table there were a few smaller tables for the alternates, most of which were there for the snacks. With over twenty people in the not-so-big room, the noise from the chatter was near deafening.</p><p>“Listen up everybody!” Adora winced. Glimmer was her deputy captain and best friend, but she could be a bit... intense. At any rate, the room quieted down almost immediately. Adora was a good leader, but Glimmer put everyone in line. </p><p>“Today we will be testing to decide teams on two different events,” Adora said in the much calmer tone. “First off, we have a league competition in two weeks, so we will be testing to see that our main team is up to snuff. And then, more importantly, we have the November Mystacor-FZIT Math Tournament coming up. We will be sending one team of six people. This is a great opportunity for people who are not as great at writing proofs because our big proof-writers will be needed most in February and we can’t send people twice.” </p><p>Adora dug a stack of papers out of her backpack and handed half of them to Glimmer. They handed them out, and then took a seat next to the head of the table to complete their own tests. The chair at the head of the table remained empty. Adora wasn’t really surprised. Ms. Brightmoon, Glimmer’s mom and the math department head was supposed to supervise the math team, but she was usually running late. She was a busy woman to say the least. </p><p>Fifteen minutes later, Ms. Brightmoon burst in, juggling a coffee cup, three binders, and a folder full of tests. Ms. Brightmoon was quite the character. Her dyed hair with overgrown roots and the math pun t-shirts she always wore contrasted sharply with her blazers (today’s was periwinkle blue) and classic pearl earrings. </p><p>“Hello everyone!” Ms. Brightmoon said as she put her things down at the head of the table. Her response was bunch of waves and a few murmured hellos. </p><p>After another thirty minutes, Adora’s timer went off and she and Glimmer collected the tests. Adora internally groaned, already dreading the grading she would have to do. And then after the grading, the complicated process of deciding which HMMT the top-scorers would be headed to. </p><p>“Glimmer, could you help me with the grading? If you don’t have too much homework.” she asked. </p><p>“Oh, yeah, sure.” Glimmer replied. Adora handed her half the tests, relieved to have Glimmer helping her.</p><p>“See you tomorrow!” Adora said on her way out the door.</p><p>“See ya!”</p><p>-----+-----</p><p>The Sasori Institute was not a pretty place. From the outside, the brutalist architecture that was typical of FZIT sent a clear message: “stay away”, and inside was not much better, with sterile concrete walls and floors. Catra adjusted her headband and marched in like she owned the place. Technically, Scorpia’s moms did, but that was beside the point. The Horde met in the giant auditorium near the lobby. Catra and her team were assigned an area near the stage, one of the highest privileges because of how close it was to the snacks. Her old team, Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio was still stuck near the middle of the auditorium. One of the best non-force teams, but not good enough. </p><p>After helping herself to some Cheez-Its and Oreos, Catra had a seat and pulled out her pencil and paper. Scorpia, who was always on time, was already there. Now they were just waiting for Entrapta. Damnit, the one day they needed her to arrive on time, she was late. They were going to go over the data Entrapta had gotten for ten to thirteen cities and see if they could draw any conclusions to optimize the code, or, if they were lucky, come up with a solution for n cites. Catra impatiently began to tap her foot. After another five minutes Catra’s foot tapping grew into a scowl and examining her sharp nails. They were sharp enough to stab people, right? </p><p>Luckily enough for Entrapta, she showed up before Catra began making exceptionally sharp origami throwing stars, bursting in the door, her computer half open and an excited, perhaps slightly mad, smile on her face. Catra smirked. Entrapta had found something good. She took a seat in their assigned area putting her computer (which she insisted on calling Emily for some reason) down on the seat next to her. She was about to go get a snack when she took a look at Catra. Entrapta might not be the best at reading people but she knew from experience that when Catra was looking at her nails, she had to get down to business and fast. After tightening her pigtails, Entrapta started to present the data she had found.</p><p>“Okay, so I think I might be picking up on a pattern,” she began. “Emily got something interesting on the primes. When they’re n, they’re always at the end after a 1. Or, in terms of our little sandwich analogy, they’re always the open-faced sandwiches.” </p><p>Catra’s face blossomed into one of her rare genuine smiles, and she looked away from her nails and picked up her pencil. “Let’s go.”</p><p>By the end of the two-hour meeting, they had stuffed their face with Cheez-Its and Oreos, laughed their heads off, and proven the “prime n” theorem, as they had decided to call it. </p><p>“Hey Entrapta, you mind sending me the data?” Catra asked, looking over at Entrapta as they packed up. She had a feeling they were missing something. She might not be the best analyst, but she was definitely better than Scorpia, who was the muscle and emotional support of the group, and Entrapta, who was a bit short-sighted despite her brilliant programming.</p><p>“Oh, yeah, sure! Email’s catra.weaver@outlook.com, right?”</p><p>“Yeah, but send it to my school email instead, in a Google Sheet. My school email is cweaver@brightmoon.edu.” Entrapta gave her a thumbs up and quickly took note of it in her computer. </p><p>“See y’all next week!” Scorpia said as she stood up to head out.</p><p>“Bye!” Entrapta said. </p><p>Catra settled for a quick and curt wave. Her brain was going a million miles an hour, trying to make sense of these numbers, this data. Scorpia saw this as a bonding activity, and Entrapta saw it as a game, but to Catra? To Catra, this was a battlefield, and she was going to win.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>God, I haven't posted in a hot minute! For some reason I had a random bit of motivation yesterday and actually managed to write a chapter. Don't ask me why, I honestly have no idea. I really want to post more for this, so hopefully March break will be on my side.</p><p>For anyone who's curious, the project Catra and Co. are working on is based on one of my real projects. Unfortunately, I published a paper, but never really finished it thanks to CoronaTM. But who knows, maybe I'll get a sudden burst of motivation for that, too.</p><p>Also:<br/>Mystacor = Harvard<br/>FZIT = Fright Zone Institute of Technology = MIT<br/>Sasori is Scorpia's last name.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>In case anyone was wondering how I came up with such a random idea, I'm taking geometry this year and I've found that proofs are all about strategy and attacking a problem the right way. So, I think it's pretty fitting for Catra to be good a proofs. And Adora is the type of person that loves having a routine and practicing and just charges at a problem head on, the type of thing that is great for math team, but gets you into a lot of trouble in geometry.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>